“Gotti” is dead with just $1,670,000 for its opening weekend. It’s Travolta’s lowest among regular openings based on theater count. But Travolta is used to low numbers– he’s had his share of disasters in his 40 year career but he always brushes himself off and keeps going.

It wasn’t like the warning signs weren’t there. “Gotti” had many false starts, producers who came and went, producers who had serious prison records, and so on. Everything pointed to this being a bad idea. James Toback had a screenplay that probably made more sense, but that was back when Barry Levinson was going to direct and the duo thought they could do another “Bugsy.”

Very nice news for Paramount and “Book Club,” with $62 million so far for Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candace Bergen, et al. If they get to $65 mil or $70 mil they may get a sequel. That’s a total “Gotti” will never live to see!

Author

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.